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OIL & GAS:
• Companies show record low interest in bidding for drilling rights at a Gulf of Mexico lease sale that was streamed from the New Orleans Superdome. (The Hill)
• A Louisiana company is trying to sell 90,000 acres of leaseholds for drilling in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. (Pittsburgh Business Times)
• The City Commission in Rome, Georgia calls on state lawmakers to more strictly regulate oil and gas drilling in a regional river basin. (Rome News-Tribune)

COMMENTARY:
• Duke Energy should back off its push to identify the source of an Associated Press report that cited a deposition transcript and embarrassed North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. (Raleigh News & Observer)• There is a “blood money” feel to the Obama administration’s grants for displaced coal workers in Appalachia. (West Virginia Metro News)
• Two Florida House members urge a vote in favor of the state’s solar Amendment 4 on the Aug. 30 ballot. (SunSentinel)• The Clean Power Plan will help preserve national parks which celebrate their 100th birthday today. (Roanoke Times)

Jim Pierobon is a former Chief Energy Writer at the Houston Chronicle and is the principal writer of The Energy Fix blog. He is a policy, marketing and social media strategist who has reported on, testified and consulted about solar energy, energy efficiency, smarter grids, energy cyber-security, fossil fuel price spikes and the rise and fall -- and the rise again -- of nuclear energy. He resides in Northern Virginia.